so harry reid, mitch mcconnell, nancy please elosi on the house to say here are the number of democrats i could get if you offer a compromise package. but this is really a tough situation because there's so little time left and we've already seen the markets impacted by this. so if we do go over the cliff, if you look at the polls, most americans saying republicans will bear the brunt. they will blame republicans, but the bottom line is the president will get a lot of blame as well because this is going to impact a lot of people. >> right. nbc's kristin welker keeping us honest at the white house. we will stand by. thank you. >> reporter: thank you. >>> joining us for analysis are two of my favorite guys, both former chairs of the democratic committee, pk to you both. >> karen. >> thanks, karen. >> governor rendell, i'm going to start with you, what do you make of this meeting? to some degree -- do we really expect we're going to get some substance out of this meeting or is this more for the optics so both sides can say they tried one more time? >> i think it's a little more for the opt